Although trading volume was light as some investors and traders added a fourth day to their three-day holiday, market players who came back to work had more reasons to buy than sell: some solid data on U.S. manufacturing and on housing, and a rebound in the euro as worries about Greece’s debt nightmare receded a bit.

The weakness in the dollar in turn helped boost commodity prices (gold jumped $29.80 to $1,119.30 an ounce, the highest since Jan. 19), and that was good for stocks of energy and raw-materials producers, which led the S&P index higher.

Wall Street had slumped for four straight weeks through Feb. 5, the longest losing streak since mid-2009, and the market seemed poised to suffer its first 10% drop in major indexes since the rally began last March. The New York Stock Exchange composite index fell 9.9% from Jan. 11 to Feb. 8, and some market sectors suffered bigger hits (see this list of the declines in popular exchange-traded funds as of Feb. 8).